Ex Parte Luedtke et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardFeb 27, 201713606992 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 27, 2017) Copy Citation United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O.Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 13/606,992 09/07/2012 Daniel Luedtke 83257444 8782 28395 7590 03/01/2017 RROOKS KTTSHMAN P C /FfTET EXAMINER 1000 TOWN CENTER DHAKAL, BICKEY 22ND FLOOR SOUTHFIELD, MI 48075-1238 ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2837 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 03/01/2017 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): docketing @brookskushman.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte DANIEL LUEDTKE and MICHAEL W. DEGNER Appeal 2015-007183 Application 13/606,992 Technology Center 2800 Before BEVERLY A. FRANKLIN, MICHAEL P. COLAIANNI, and MICHAEL G. McMANUS, Administrative Patent Judges. McMANUS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL The Examiner finally rejected claims 13—16 and 18 of Application 13/606,992 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as anticipated and claims 17 and 19 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious. Final Act. 2—7 (Sept. 11, 2014). Appellants1 seek reversal of these rejections pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a). We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm-in-part. 1 Ford Global Technologies, LLC is identified as the real party in interest. Appeal Br. 3. Appeal 2015-007183 Application 13/606,992 BACKGROUND The ’992 Application describes a method of operating an inverter to control the torque output of an electric machine. Spec. 3. Claim 13 is representative of the ’992 Application’s claims and is reproduced below from the Claims Appendix to the Appeal Brief: 13. A method of operating an inverter connected to a bus with a bus voltage and also to an electric machine having a rotor speed, the method comprising: receiving a torque request; computing a normalized speed by dividing the rotor speed by the bus voltage; computing at least one torque determining setting based on the normalized speed and the torque request; and issuing commands to the inverter based on the at least one torque determining setting. Appeal Br. (Claims App. 3). REJECTION On appeal, the Examiner maintains the following rejections: 1. Claims 13—16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2011/0241578 Al, pub. Oct. 6, 2011) (hereinafter “Kim”). Final Act. 2—5. 2. Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Kim. Id. at 5—6. 3. Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Kim in view of Kerkman et al. (US 5,121,043, iss. June 9, 1992) (hereinafter “Kerkman”). Id. at 6—7. 2 Appeal 2015-007183 Application 13/606,992 DISCUSSION Rejection 1. Appellants present one argument for the reversal of the rejection of independent claim 13 (and claims 14—16 and 18 which depend from claim 13) and another argument that is limited to claim 14 (and claim 15 which depends from claim 14). Claim 13 is a method claim that requires “computing a normalized speed by dividing the rotor speed by the bus voltage.” App. Br. (Claims App. 3). In rejecting claim 13, the Examiner found that Kim teaches the claimed computation. Final Act. 3. Specifically, the Examiner found that Kim’s Equation 2 teaches such operation as follows: ..4,. v&CtMtp «y, = i 1' 1" \ ' 1 I' A \ ■’......r;........... if i'-' Kim 123; Fig. 4. Kim teaches that (£>rpm,Nom represents the normalized motor speed, F is a voltage variation flag, Kn represents the operating weight, Vdc,map represents the map setting reference voltage, Vdc represents the battery voltage (DC link voltage), and corpm represents the motor rotational speed. Id. 1124, 39. The Examiner finds that Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation